Four key members of the US Congress actually blocked all large arms sales to Turkey due to Ankara’s purchase of the S-400. On Wednesday, August 12, Defense News reported, citing sources.
According to him, at least two large contracts will suffer from the actions of the congressmen: the modernization of F-16 fighters and the issuance of export licenses for helicopter engines so that Turkey can fulfill its contract for the supply of these machines to Pakistan in the amount of $ 1.5 billion.
As the author of the publication notes, the freezing of arms sales is a diplomatic tool that the United States has not used against Turkey since 1978, after Turkish troops invaded Cyprus.
Among the authors of the initiative, the source said, high-ranking member of the House Foreign Relations Committee Mike McCall and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jim Risch.
At the end of July, Ankara expressed its readiness to “eliminate the concerns” of the United States over the incompatibility of the American fifth generation F-35 fighters and the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. A week earlier it became known that Turkey had begun testing the Russian S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems on American-made F-16 and F-4 Phantom II fighters.